1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a hygienic care system primarily for the non-ambulatory and disabled in the private sector (at home), while a guest at a hotel or residential student, to provide showering and shampooing. Specifically, the invention provides for a portable showering cabinet, adapted for private, personal care, with or without the services of an attendant, and which does not require permanent installation, but uses existing conventional water and draining hardware accessible in the home or other facility, and one which is designed so that the wheelchair user or non-ambulatory patient can safely enter and exit through a side entrance door directly from the wheelchair. The user may also have access from a front door.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bathing cabinets for treating patients in a hospital or other institution are known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,562,821 issued Feb. 16, 1971 to Carl J. Queen describes a permanently mounted bathing cabinet that includes interior shower plumbing and a patient access front water shielding door to receive a patient.
Currently there is emphasis on caring for patients in the private home, as opposed to institutional care. Early discharges from the hospital that returns a patient home while requiring the services of a caregiver, the growing population of the aged, the majority of which remain in the home, are contributors to the vital need and demand for a method of providing daily hygienic care with a system designed for the disabled and non ambulatory, while reducing or eliminating potential injury to the patient and the attendant caregiver.
Using the present invention, portable, personalized showering can be obtained for the disabled, the convalescent, the aged, and others who cannot utilize conventional bathtubs and showers. The showering cabinet provides for total body showering, shampooing, perineal cleansing, and may be used for sitz bath treatments. The showering cabinet is completely mobile and does not require costly or elaborate custom plumbing or electrical installation. The showering cabinet also provides for maximum safety in an environment that can be hazardous because of the exposure to slipping and falling by both patient and caregiver into and out of a shower stall or bathtub. With the present invention, a patient can be transferred with safety and comfort, due to the horizontal, side-mounted transfer platform (auxiliary seat) provided and the ability of the shower seat in the housing to align with the auxiliary platform and the wheelchair, which remains in position.
The showering system, being portable, has casters that can be locked into place. The system can be used in numerous environments that include the private home, rehabilitation centers, general and specialized hospitals, adult day care centers, and the acute and critical care units of nursing homes. The 1990 ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), Title III, states that all public accommodations must provide accessible service and equipment for the disabled. Therefore, hotels and residential schools must offer usable showering facilities for the disabled. The showering system is extremely economical because it is portable, does not require costly renovations for use, and is connected to water and draining hardware already within the home or facility. Should the condition of the patient require assistance in obtaining care, the caregiver stands at the side, always within immediate access to the patient. The patient is always at chair height. The system does not require the use of mechanical lifting and lowering devices. The water entering the cabinet is through a control valve which maintains a selected temperature and shuts down in the event of a variation in the selected temperature.